My Story

Greetings fellow earthling. Let’s get to know each other a little bit.

My name is Mike, the definition of average in many ways. I’m a native son of Alabama, insatiable reader, lackluster musician, terrible cook and a lover of the outdoors. More importantly though, adventure and travel have become vital to me in the quest to not only live, but to live well. Over the last 5 years I have made it an effort to blend work and travel into one salient being and find some sort of balance between surviving financially and traveling. Hence the title of this website.

I, like so many others, jumped through the normal hoops of middle class North America. I graduated high school and went to University. After a year at college, I felt somewhat trapped, felt that there was a million different things I’d rather be doing than completing mind numbing assignments and attending lectures that probably could have been learned through Youtube. Don’t get me wrong, I realize the giant blessing that education is, but it wasn’t the right time in life for me to pursue it. Bull headed as usual, I plugged away at a degree that I believed to be practical and had an amicable long distance trajectory: I would complete my 4 year bachelor’s in Exercise Science and continue on to become a Physical/Occupational Therapist, buy a small bit of property, get married, double my bodyfat percentage and hell, I don’t know buy a sedan or something.

Luckily, mid way through my sophomore year I came across a website called Coolworks.com while researching a titanium cooking pot. That last sentence is very telling of my social life in college… I decided it was time for a change of scenery. I applied and landed a maintenance/landscaping job in Nathrop, Colorado at a guest ranch. That’s where everything began for me as far as traveling goes. I was hooked. I dropped out of school, travelled and worked and travelled some more for about a year and a half. During this time I polished up good financial management skills, nursed that growing sense of adventure and got to see some of the world. As life had it, I returned to college to finish the degree, as I didn’t want to waste the time or money already invested. I continued to work seasonal jobs in the summer and eagerly counted down the seconds until I graduated.

I won’t spill all the beans at once, but for the last year and a half I’ve been accomplishing my goal of seeing the world by the sweat on my brow. And to be honest, there’s not really an end in sight. I want to show you the resources that are available for someone willing to put the work in, take their destiny into their own hands and break out of the small world they’ve known all their life. I promise you, guarantee you, pinky promise, double stomp on a crack and break your momma’s back that you will not regret it.

Ahem.

Yes, I am still speaking to you fellow earthling, that is if you’re still in your cyber front porch chair. So, you down? Down to become the envy of your friends, down to adventure off into the sunset? Down to have something to talk about when your old ass is rotting away in a Nursing Home? Might help you with that cute GMILF down the hall, just saying.

Not sure where to start? Check out a few of the articles for inspiration and tips to get started on a life I’m positively certain you won’t regret. Welcome to Blue Collar Travel.